Levett's Cellar & Spicer's Cove

The likely landing and settlement location of Christopher Levett, who was granted 6,000 acres in Casco Bay in 1623 and left a small garrison here — one of the earliest English attempts at permanent settlement in Maine.

• A sheltered, south-facing cove protected from prevailing weather.
• Elevated terraces above the beach are consistent with 17th-century garden plots.
• A stone cellar depression persists in the woods above the cove.

Read the site as a landing before searching for artifacts: probable shallop haul-out, path uphill, freshwater source, and refuse zone downslope from the cellar.

1. 1.What features of this cove would convince a 1623 sailor to stay?
2. 2.Where would fresh water have come from, and does that shape the settlement footprint?
3. 3.If the cellar is Levett's, where is the associated midden?

Distances are straight-line from recorded coordinates. Island roads curve, so allow more time than the estimate.

• Plan of Cushing Islandca. 1888
• Map of Cushing Islandca. 1888
• Cushing Island, Portland Harborca. 1870
• An Historical Sketch, Guide Book, and Prospectus of Cushing's Island1886
• A Voyage into New England1628
• The Harbor Defenses of Portland (history with reproduced plans)undated
• Portland in the Pastundated